Abs.
The first thing to do on my journey of getting my abs back was to fix this body. It was the body of a lazy child.
It was my body, for sure. I knew I was Eugene Hall. But I used to be Yujin the hunter before this in my previous life. Or maybe, it could just be that I have somehow received Yujin's memories, or his ego taking over my own. Whatever the case was, I didn't care.
People like me who are the strongest in the world don't really worry about those things. Our agency belongs to us and us only.
Maybe others would be worried about things like this, but I knew that we as humans are ever-changing. The me at this moment is starkly different from the me in the last moment, and the me in the next moment will also be different from the me now.
In this case, what truly mattered was the present. "Who am I?" It is a question that unconfident losers asked themselves to waste time. You are who you are, that's all that matters.
And I, I am the man who wants to get my fucking abs back. Even more, than being the strongest in the world, I only recognized myself by my amazing abs and muscles!
With that thought sorted, I started laughing.
"Kuku... Kukufu...."
"Young master...?" The maid turned around again and looked at me, her voice now closer to a completely freaked out yelp.
"The journey to the abs start from runs."
For some reason, I did remember the way out of the estate. It was blurry, but it was there. Without looking at the maid, I brushed my clothes and started walking ahead. To be honest, my recovery speed was a bit too fast even for myself.
I left the maid behind and walked out of the mansion, a wide grin plastered on my face.
***
I got out in the yard of the mansion. Blades of grass swerved from side to side while birds and small animals ran amok amongst the trees.
I, the great Eugene Hall, followed behind them.
Taking in deep breaths for three seconds, holding for four and exhaling for five, I ran around the yard just fast enough to tire myself out. The breathing technique only added on to the training. Stamina was closely connected to how much oxygen you could get to your muscles and how much waste you could remove from your muscles.
The yard of the estate was about two kilometers in perimeter. I started tiring out in just half a lap of running, and by the end of the first one, I lost my breathing.
This body was weak.
As hell.
After running around the yard came pushups.
Completely drenched in sweat, I took off my tunic and went to the clearing near the pond in the mansion's backyard. It was still about 6:30 in the morning, and some sounds had started making their way to my ears. I ignored them and moved some pebbles away from my path before starting my pushups.
I went down all at once... and plopped down to the ground.
Dirt and dust from near the pond stuck my face and my skin. I guess even my hair was dirty.
I clicked my tongue.
"Such shit arm strength."
It would take some time to gradually get there with this body. I looked around, and my eyes landed on a giant boulder.
A good way to start was with an incline toward your upper body. Knee pushups are also a good start, but the work better for fixing your posture and technique than your strength. An incline on the other hand gives you just enough leeway to not put all your body weight on your triceps. I leaned on the boulder, and lowered my body again, till the point my nose could almost touch the boulder, and then pulled back up.
Again.
And then again.
I kept performing push-ups. Muscle strength was one thing, but willpower counted too! As the one to be the strongest, I couldn't work in sets here.
How uncool was that?
So, I went ahead and performed 300 pushups.
By the time I was done, my hands were too tired to even be lifted up, but whatever.
"These arms are getting in my way, I'll make them settle somewhere."
I locked my fingers, and picked up a boulder smaller than the one I was working with. There were a ton of them near the pond.
With my hands busy now, I started performing squats, boulder in hand.
300 of them as well.
Next were sit-ups. It had only been 20 minutes since I started, no big worries.
300 more.
I wanted to work on my lats, obliques and back as well... but a bigger problem was in my way.
"Fuck, I can't move."
I was spent.
The white clouds in the sea of blue, the orange-yellow tint of the early morning sun. A rich breeze filled with oxygen and the sounds of the still cheery birds.
All of it was beautiful.
For some reason, it felt like I was hearing them after a long time, despite hearing them everyday in Pantheon.
Pantheon? Right, it was the academy that was in the memories of Yujin and not Eugene. I closed my eyes and took in deep breaths, enjoying the atmosphere. Training took time, it always did.
That was the worst.
This body had already lost years worth of time.
Yujin, Yujin never received anything and didn't care for it. Only strength mattered back then, so Yujin's body pursued strength since just a few years old.
I knew everything, would that help?
Not ready to waste my time, I started focusing on my core. I changed up my breathing again to feel the mana inside my body and focused on my core.
There, a sea of blue energy swirled inside my body. But the blue energy was completely riddled with black and white bits, parasitizing it.
It was dirty, almost 70% of it were impurities. I would have to throw it all away. But even the remaining 30% was a huge mana pool. Further than that, when I condense it and turn it into arcana and then aether, it would reduce even further, but I would still have more than what Yujin did.
Weak as it was, in terms of magic, this body was an absolute beast. With that, I could further reinforce my body with magic, but this body was too weak for it.
I still couldn't move, so I got to work by moving my mana slowly through my mana circuit.
"Y-young master!?"
Then, a voice reached my ears. It was strange for me to recognize a voice, but I had heard this one just a few hours ago so it was fresh in my memory. The same maid that had entered my room earlier was here.
"What happened to you, Young master? Please hold on! I'll heal your right now."
She said and got on her knees. She carefully placed her hand on my bare stomach.
Mana started seeping into my body.
It was like a gentle warmth, like the first rays of the morning sun, the strange mana blanketed my body and mind, and then.
My muscles started healing.
Ara?
What is this?
Like the top ranked healing hunters, or the advanced healing equipments, no, its even better? This maid is speeding up my recovery process by leaps and bounds?
In almost no time, the muscles around my hand tightened, and then my feet and abs followed. All over my body, I could feel strength coming back, my muscles a notch stronger than before.
Already? I was healed already? The effects of the workout were here already?
The healing tired me out further, likely due to the high amount of work it needs to heal my body, but I still managed to fix my muscles.
With this power... isn't it possible to speed up my one month's workout and finish it in just a day? Target different muscles, and then heal them back up? Rinse and repeat.
I smirked again. With my body mobile once more, I immediately stood up and clasped the maid's hand.
"You," I said, my voice low. "What's your name?"
"Yes...? Young master? You forgot about me? Lily?"
I then wrapped my other hand around her hand. I couldn't recognize her face, but the coarse yet soft feeling of her hand was etched into my mind. I could recognize her with this... I guess.
I tightened my grip and looked into her eyes.
"Lily, never leave my side from now on."
"EH.....? EH?"
You're going to get me my abs back.